MLB Insider Compares Astros’ Bullpen To 'Nasty Boys'

The Houston Astros set up their bullpen for success in 2024 with the signing of Josh Hader as their closer.

In fact, one baseball insider believes the bullpen could be reminiscent of one of the most famous bullpens in baseball history.

ESPN’s Jeff Passan wrote in his MLB preview that the Astros, with Hader, Ryan Pressly and Bryan Abreu have perhaps the best trio of relievers since the ‘Nasty Boys,’ who helped the Cincinnati Reds win the 1990 World Series.

That trio — Norm Charlton, Rob Dibble and Randy Myers — were some of baseball’s most dominant relievers at the time. The trio was like a comet as they were only together for a couple of years.

In 1990 Myers and Dibble shared the NLCS Most Valuable Player award. In the World Series against the defending champion Oakland Athletics, the trio held Oakland to no earned runs in nearly nine innings of work, giving up only six hits.

Passan believes this trio has the same capability, saying they may be the “Nasty Boys of the early 1990s reborn.”

Hader is coming off a 33-save season for the San Diego Padres, which included a 1.28 ERA, the second-lowest of his career. He is slated to take the ninth inning, per manager Joe Espada.

Before that, you have Pressly, who has been the Astros’ closer for the past four seasons and registered most of his 108 career saves with Houston. He had 31 saves last year with a 3.58 ERA.

Abreu could be a closer one day. For now he’s one of baseball’s best set-up men. He had a 1.75 ERA last season in 72 games and has had a sub-2.00 ERA in each of his last two seasons.

Passan also wrote the trio has an Astros connection to the past — the 2003 bullpen trio of closer Billy Wagner and set-up men Octavio Dotel and Brad Lidge.

Wagner had 44 saves and a 1.78 ERA. Dotel had a 2.48 ERA and a 6-4 record, while Lidge went 6-3 with a 3.60 ERA and finished fifth in NL Rookie of the Year voting.

The Astros’ season may hinge on what this version of the ‘Nasty Boys’ could do.